Thursday, May 18, 2006

Post Script

The Girl With No Hands Cabaret was quite fun. About a hundred people there, or so it seemed -- so it had to be a fundraising success. Because I taught that evening, I didn't arrive until the second half -- but all the performances I saw were professional and engaging. Johanna Nutter's solo play was touching, and one Derick Lengwenus did a hilarious routine where, playing a surgeon in a labcoat, he demonstrated a surgical operation on a banana, replacing a lesion in its skin with a graft from a "donor lemon", with deadpan commentary about the risk of emotional attachment to the patient, the ethical issues of such transplants, etc. Well, I guess you had to be there. To me though the standout performance was Harry Stadjovski (or Standjofski), better known as an actor/playwrite, who also it turns out, plays a mean jazz guitar. Virtuosic riffs over his own loops recorded on the spot -- I've seen that kind of thing done before, and it always struck me as gimmicky, but the way he did it was tasteful, natural, not showing off at all. And yet as for sheer virtuosity...Al De Meola watch out! (Well, at least HS invites that comparison...) As for my own performance, I was the last before the closer, so I did some funny and satirical pieces that went over well.

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About Me

Brian Campbell is a poet, singer-songwriter, editor, translator, photographer and teacher. His third full-length poetry collection, Shimmer Report, was published by Ekstasis Editions in 2015. He is also the author of Remnants of Autumn (Sky of Ink Press photobook, 2016), A Private Collection (Sky of Ink Press chapbook, 2014),Passenger Flight (Signature Editions, 2009), Guatemala and Other Poems (1994) and Undressing the Night (Editorial Lunes, Costa Rica, 2007), a translation of the selected poems of Francisco Santos. His poetry, reviews and essays have appeared in numerous reviews, including Saranac Review, New Quarterly, Prairie Fire, and The Rover. A finalist in the 2006 CBC Literary Award for Poetry, he is also co-founder/editor of Sky of Ink Press, which prints quality poetry chapbooks. His independent music CD, The Courtier’s Manuscript, was released in 2002.